Foxwoods: Peter Pan interested in replacing shuttles

JAMES MOSHER

Tuesday

Jan 31, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 31, 2012 at 12:46 PM

Peter Pan Bus Lines Inc. is interested in creating a paid public line to replace free employee shuttles offered by Foxwoods Resort Casino, but any plan would to have meet state regulatory requirements.

Peter Pan Bus Lines Inc. is interested in creating a paid public line to replace free employee shuttles offered by Foxwoods Resort Casino, but any plan would to have meet state regulatory requirements.

Whether a plan would be approved by Feb. 29 appears doubtful. That’s the day Foxwoods plans to terminate its off-site shuttles, which include runs starting in Norwich and North Stonington. Peter Pan has not filed an application with the state Department of Transportation.

“There is some interest but there’s nothing right now,” Colin Johnson, manager of Peter Pan’s Waterford office, said Monday morning. “We may have more to say later this week.”

The application would be the first step in a process, DOT spokesman Judd Everhart said.

“If it’s open to the public, they are charging a fare and running a schedule, they need our authority,” Everhart wrote in an email.

“If they want to run any scheduled bus route without subsidy from us, they need to come in and apply for a motor bus route authority. We would then hold a hearing.”

Foxwoods is looking to totally cease involvement in off-site employee transportation, encouraging employees to park on casino property and take buses that originate on casino land. Vice President of Hotel Operations Chris O’Connell has said Foxwoods doesn’t wish to “subsidize” a line run by Preston-based Southeast Area Regional District, New London County’s public bus company or any other entity.

SEAT directors voted last week to send a letter to the casino containing a financial proposal.

Bill Satti, spokesman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns Foxwoods and MGM Grand at Foxwoods, said he was unsure if the casino would be willing to extend shuttle service past Feb. 29. Heads of the Foxwoods transportation department were off from work Monday, he said.

The DOT turned down a grant application from Massachusetts-based Peter Pan, one of the Northeast’s largest bus companies, that would have helped establish a service from Hartford to New London that included Foxwoods, Everhart said.

“The DOT turned down the request because the ridership forecasts were really, really low,” he wrote.

Other transportation companies have approached Foxwoods about creating the bus line but casino executives have declined to name them.

Foxwoods has said it wants to drop its shuttle program because of decreasing use of the buses and increasing requests from employees to park on property. Executives have declined to estimate how much will be saved through the termination. Chinese and American Cultural Association President John Wong said Norwich-area Asians that work at Foxwoods, some of whom walk to the bus stops, will be hurt if the shuttles are terminated without an inexpensive alternative offered.

SEAT does not currently run direct service from Norwich to Foxwoods although it does supply direct buses from Norwich to Mohegan Sun.

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